Alone
by Puzzle Dragon
Summary: After Yami has left to the afterlife, Yugi has become trapped in a downward spiral...


Author notes:

Hey, everyone! Puzzle here, just hoping to get some reading and reviewing for this story. Thanks for looking! ...Yeah, that's all I've got.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything Yu-Gi-Oh!. So please don't sue me.

Claimer: I do, however, own the first three lines of this story. Though I give permission for anybody to use 'em. I'm flattered that anybody would think such sappy lines worth their time.

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If thy petals were gone, wouldst thou still be a rose?

If thy taste was bitter, wouldst thou still be water?

If thy wings were gone, wouldst thou still be an angel...?

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**Drip. Drip. Drip.**

The remains of a day of rain were still running slowly off the roof of the house. A rather peaceful night, in all respects. A boy with wild, tricolored hair was sitting inside at a window, watching the drops fall slowly into and back out of his field of vision. He was quite thin, and his eyes were sunken into the back of his skull, making him seem as if he was the walking dead. Those deep violet eyes were dull and glazed, as if the owner of these eyes was deathly ill. Perhaps this was true.

However, he was most certainly not sick in the normal sense of the word. His body was untouched by the effects of actual disease, but he was thin and sickly, his skin pale to the point of limited translucency. His fingers were thin and bony, his hair (which usually had some sort of wild order to it) was now haphazard, and didn't even seem to be making an attempt to stand up in the perky way he had always styled it. The red tips of his hair were a dirtier russet color, now, and the black parts below them were much less healthy looking, seeming dull and dark instead of their usual glossy appearance. His blonde bangs were limp, and were more gray than golden. So, so different from their usual shape, which was stiff and zigzagged as a bolt of lightening, and their usual color, golden as the sands of Egypt.

**Drip. Drip. Drip.**

_I wonder if I can see Yami again, somehow...?_

The other half of his soul, Yami, had disappeared. He was gone to the afterlife, after that damned ceremonial duel. Oh, dear Gods, it was maddening. To think that he had actually agreed to send his darkness away, his other half. Now he would never see him again. And it _was_ preposterous to think that he was ever going to see his darkness again. Madness, simple and pure.

Yugi (for that was what this poor wretch's name was) snickered quietly. Any who had the misfortune to hear it would describe it as a bitter sound, sharp and cold as a frozen dagger. The true dagger, however, had been plunged into Yugi's heart, and had frozen it over as surely as snowstorms kill seedlings.

Shortly after Yami had gone, Yugi had slowly and inexorably pushed his friends away. He once again became a loner, and the personality change that came with this was quite drastic. He became distant from the world, often forgetting to eat, drink and acknowledge anybody who spoke to him. When somebody actually caught his attention, he usually responded with a cold glare and a few words spoken in a clipped and cold tone that clearly said, 'Why are you wasting my time?'

He dropped out of school shortly afterward. His grandfather had yet to know, as he managed to forge grades of average level, and even make it look as if he was slowly improving on his schoolwork. In reality, when he told his grandfather he was going to school, he usually went to the park to sit and watch the grass, and pretend the hills to be the rolling sands of Egypt, with the river Nile running swiftly through them. It usually didn't work, but when he had just the right amount of inspiration, he could almost see Yami standing beside him, almost feel his warm, comforting presence in the back of his mind.

A slight smirk came up on Yugi's face. Madness, was it, to believe that Yami could ever come back? Indeed, it was. But he wasn't mad, now was he? Well... Now that he thought on it, perhaps he was acting a bit... Less than sane. But really, how did this matter? Yami was gone, after all, and he wouldn't care if Yugi was trussed up in a straightjacket as long as he wasn't there to watch it.

His next bout of laughter could only be described with the phrase 'utterly mad'.

...Purely insane...

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Author notes:

I'll probably continue this... R&R, people! Thanks for reading, but I like to know what you all think!


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